Fourteenth Annual ACTR National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest

[Tony Brown]

Students taking Russian in accredited colleges and universities are invited to participate in the fourteenth annual National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest sponsored by the American Council of Teachers of Russian.

All students must pay a registration fee of $5.00. Students can only be registered by a teacher. Please note that one teacher at each participating institution must be a current member of ACTR. Be sure to indicate this person on your registration form. To register your students, please send a registration form (below) and one check made out to "ACTR" to Tony Brown, Department of German and Russian, Brigham Young University, 3093 JFSB, Provo, Utah 84602. All registrations must be received by January 31, 2013. Registrations received after the deadline will not be accepted. (Payment can be received later since we understand that approval for final payment may take several weeks at your institution.)  When registering your students, please consult the criteria below to select the appropriate level.

Teachers whose students are participating in the contest will receive directions and the essay topic in late January 2013. Students will write their essays between Feb. 1 and Feb. 15, 2013 at a time selected by the instructor at each institution. Students should not receive the essay topic until the time scheduled to write the essay. Judges will review the essays in March 2013 and winners will be announced by April 15, 2013.

Please note that students cannot use any books or notes and may not work together. Essays must be written legibly in blue or black ink (pencil is not acceptable as it will not photocopy) and on lined paper provided by instructors. The time limit for writing the essays will be one hour. After students complete the essay, teachers will make four photocopies of each essay as per the directions and then send the originals and three photocopies to Tony Brown within 48 hours of the test date. All essays will be evaluated anonymously: no essay will be identifiable by the name or institution of the student who wrote it. Gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention ribbon awards (certificates) will be presented for the best essays at each level.

Teachers may not substitute students for those registered by the deadline. No refunds are available for students who don't show up for the essay contest.

Essays will be ranked according to levels as follows:

CATEGORY 1:
NON-HERITAGE LEARNERS (those learners who do not and did not ever speak Russian in the home. Please take the time to calculate the number of hours that your students have studied Russian to place them in the proper category.)

Level One: students who at the time of the essay contest will have had fewer than 100 contact hours of instruction in Russian (whether in college alone or in college and high school). (Please note that heritage learners of any Slavic language, including Russian, are not allowed to participate in this level and category of the contest.)

Level Two: students who at the time of the essay contest will have had more than 100 contact hours, but fewer than 250 contact hours of instruction. (This is mostly students in second-year Russian.)

Level Three: students who will have had more than 250 contact hours, but fewer than 400 contact hours of instruction. (This is mostly students in third- or fourth-year Russian.)

Level Four: students who will have had more than 400 contact hours of instruction. (This is mostly students in fourth- or fifth-year Russian.)

CATEGORY 2: 
HERITAGE LEARNERS

Level One: students who speak Russian with their families and who have NOT attended school in Russia or the former Soviet Union and have to learn reading and writing skills after emigration.

Level Two: students who speak Russian with their families and who have attended school for fewer than 5 years in Russia or the former Soviet Union and may have had to relearn reading and writing skills after emigration.

Level Three: students who speak Russian with their families and who have attended school for 5 or more years in Russia or the former Soviet Union and have not had to relearn reading and writing skills after emigration.

Judges will evaluate essays according to content (the ability to express ideas in Russian and communicate information about the topic) and length, lexicon, syntax, structure (grammatical and orthographic accuracy), and originality or creativity.

Awards will be announced in the ACTR Letter and Web site, and the AATSEEL Web site. The best gold ribbon essays will be published in the ACTR Letter. 

Teachers with questions about the essay contest should contact:

Tony Brown
Department of German and Russian
Brigham Young University
3093 JFSB
Provo, Utah 84602
801-422-7012
tony_brown at byu.edu

NAME OF INSTITUTION: ...............................................................................................................
INSTRUCTOR: ................................................... 
INSTRUCTOR (current member of ACTR if different from name listed above.)………………………………………………………………………………….
ADDRESS: ...........................................................................................................................
CITY/STATE/ZIP: .......................................................... TELEPHONE:: ................................................
EMAIL: .........................................................................FAX: .................................................

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